Gladiators star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey has announced he is eyeing up a bold new job following his Strictly Come Dancing stint as he could bare all to fans
Strictly Come Dancing star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is eyeing up a very different career when he leaves the BBC dance competition. The Gladiator star is one of the favourites on this year’s series thanks to his impressive moves on the dancefloor.
He is best known for competing as Nitro on Gladiators but has been setting the Strictly dancefloor alight with his routines with professional dance partner Karen Hauer. It seems Harry has been enjoying his Strictly journey so much that he is planning a new role when his time comes to an end.
The hunky TV star has revealed he’s eyeing up a stint on the West End when he leaves the competition. However, fans will be seeing more of Harry than they might have bargained for.
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Thanks to his ever growing muscles, Harry joked: “Oh yeah, Magic Mike is incoming, and I am getting bigger. It’s actually muscle I’m putting on.”
He revealed that while he was warned he would lose muscle by dancing, he is actually gaining. Harry told the Sun: “I’ve been on the physio table the last couple of weeks and he’s been like, ‘Your calves have got bigger’.”
The Gladiator credited wearing Cuban heels as the key to the success of his growing calves. Earlier this month, Harry revealed how he became emotional over his Strictly success following an injury he sustained on Gladiators.
During a chat on The One Show alongside professional partner Karen, he admitted: “Yeah, it hit me. I got overwhelmed with emotion because not a lot of people know the extent of the injury that I had prior, which saw me out of Series 2 of Gladiators.
“But, you know, quite often we question ourselves, we go through a few lows, and, for me, I am a big ball of energy!” Harry added that there was some concerns about his personality when he found himself injured but has been able to use the dancefloor as a chance to reclaim his ‘true self’ in front of the nation.
He said: “When you don’t know if you’re going to be what you once was, just in terms of your personality, being on that dance floor and being able to show my true self and be that person again, it just meant so much.”
Harry needed surgery and spent six weeks in bed after rupturing his kneecap during training for Gladiators last summer. The setback left the athlete desperately wondering if he was done for good, but then the opportunity to participate in the Christmas edition of Strictly came about.
“I’d been through a really tough time mentally,” the married dad-of-one admitted at the time. “For athletes, obviously, our body is our tool and I wasn’t confident that I was going to be back sprinting or back to being Nitro. It put a strain on our family and put a strain on my well-being.”
Despite Harry being restricted in how he was able to dance on the Christmas show due to his recovery, he found it was a perfect distraction.
He has now made a full recovery and the next series of Gladiators has been recorded with the fearsome Nitro back on board.
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